By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
"PRIMATE" GOES APE IN THIS WILDLY FUN CREATURE FEATURE
Monkeys are cute, but they are wild animals and absolutely not meant to be house pets. History has made that painfully clear from the horrifying 2009 case of Charla Nash, who was mauled by her friend's pet chimp Travis, and she required a face transplant, to even pop royalty learning the hard way. Michael Jackson famously adored his chimp Bubbles but eventually had to give him up when the animal became too aggressive to manage.
And here's the real kicker: none of those chimps had rabies--unlike Ben, the fur-flying menace at the center of the new horror thriller
"Primate."
If this movie teaches us anything, it's this: if you're thinking about owning a monkey, please--get a cat. Or a dog. Or a goldfish.
"Primate," from director
Johannes Roberts, is a bloody good time that knows exactly what kind of movie it is and leans into the madness with glee. Roberts and co-screenwriter
Ernest Riera clearly haven't forgotten how to make creature chaos sing, having already proven their chops with
"47 Meters Down" and "47 Meters Down: Uncaged." Here, they trade sharks for simians and somehow make the switch feel both fresh and ferociously entertaining.
The story follows Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah, TV's "Dexter: New Blood"), fresh off her college finals and heading home to a secluded Hawaiian estate to reconnect with her celebrity author father Adam (Academy Award winner Troy Kotsur, "CODA," TV's "Black Rabbit") and her teenage sister Erin (Gia Hunter, TV's "Sherlock & Daughter, and "Containment"). Sounds peaceful enough, until you find out the family owns a chimpanzee named Ben (Miguel Torres Umba, TV's "The Institute"). He's young. He's curious. He's adorable. And then he's bitten by a mongoose, contracts rabies, and goes ape crazy.
What follows is less "cute animal companion" and more "nature documentary directed by Satan."
What makes "Primate" such a blast is how unapologetically fun it is. The film doesn't waste time pretending this is prestige horror--it's here to thrill, shock, and make the audience squirm in the best ways possible.
The opening scene is a genuine jaw-dropper, setting the tone for a relentless ride packed with gore, tension, and moments that will have horror fans laughing nervously as they recoil. Roberts stages the chaos with confidence, escalating each set piece until you're no longer wondering if things will go wrong, but how spectacularly.
Lucy's partying friends, Kate (Victoria Wyant, TV's "I Fought the Law"), Nick (Benjamin Cheng), Drew (Charlie Mann, TV's "Lazarus"), Brad (Tienne Simon, "All The Devils Are Here"), and Hannah (Jess Alexander ("The Little Mermaid" and TV's "The Beauty") probably wish they had skipped her invite to come to her house and party.
Despite the bloodshed, "Primate" never loses its sense of play. There's a wicked sense of humor lurking beneath the screams, and the film understands that animal horror works best when it embraces its B-movie roots while delivering A-level energy. It's fast, nasty, and wildly entertaining, and a reminder of why creature features remain such a reliable crowd-pleaser.
By the end, "Primate" leaves you exhilarated, horrified, and maybe a little suspicious of anything hairy that can climb, grab, and think.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays at 5:17 p.m. and 6:47 p.m. on radio station KFBK 93.1 FM and 1530 AM.
Check Out This Trailer For
"PRIMATE"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
